


Well Maybe You Should Stay

by Chash



Series: Weary With Right Angles [10]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 05:11:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13287699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Wells never had much idea where he was going to meet his soulmate, but it's safe to say that he wasn't expecting it to be at an anime convention where she was one of the guests.He also wouldn't have expected all of Clarke's friends to follow him there, but he probably should have. They love a good event.





	1. Wells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fill for [goodoldmoon](http://goodoldmoon.tumblr.com)!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some Japanese text in here, which might not show on all browsers? idk, in case you get weird empty boxes, that's what's going on.

It takes Wells a good ten minutes to find the soulmate tattoo on the morning of his eighteenth birthday, and once he does, he spends a few more minutes just staring at his right ankle, trying to make sense of what he’s seeing. His first thought is that it will be easy to google, until he realizes that he has no idea how to get the characters off his ankle and into a search bar. And even if he did, what then? He doesn't even know what language it’s written in; the google results would be just as incomprehensible.

On the bright side, college starts in a week. His resources are about to get an upgrade.

His first guess is Chinese, but when he asks a professor in that department, he's directed to the Japanese department next door instead. Within about ten minutes of meeting Professor Reiko Yamaguchi, he's overwhelmed with information, all of this stuff about stroke counts and radicals, Chinese and Japanese readings, and he doesn't even have enough background to understand what he doesn't know.

She gets him enrolled in Japanese 101, which he assumes will give him answers quickly, but after a week or two, he realizes this is going to be a  _process_. He has two other writing systems to learn before he even gets started on kanji, of which there are  _thousands_ , and names are hard even for native Japanese speakers.

It's probably going to take a while.

He doesn't have to do it like this, of course. Yamaguchi-sensei tells him it's a common problem in Japan, that she went through the same thing with her wife's name. There are services he can use, agencies he can hire. He has choices, aside from trying to learn everything by himself, but he finds himself turning down every offer with a smile. Some perverse, stupid part of him wants to leave it to fate.

He wants to be ready for her, but he doesn't want to go looking.

"There's no such thing as ready," Clarke tells him, a few weeks before graduation. He loves her, but ever since she found her soulmate, she's been acting like she's the expert, when it's definitely him. He's done so much more research on the subject than she has. He's got a  _website_.

"I could google her now, and I haven't. I could just put her whole name in order up on my website, instead of doing profiles of all the individual kanji. I've got a ton of options, and I haven't used them, which means I'm not ready."

"I get that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. Just because you think you could find her if you looked, it doesn't mean you have to. I could have found Bellamy if I looked too. But that doesn't mean I was ready when I found him."

"I know." He sighs. "I guess it's just part of my brand, you know? I'm the guy who didn't know how to find his soulmate, and after five years, I think I probably could. But I'm still waiting for it to just happen organically."

"That just means after five years, you've finally caught up to where most of us started," she teases, and he laughs.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm always behind the curve."

He does know a few things for sure. He knows what every individual character in her name is, how to write them and what they mean, and he knows the first two are her last name, and the last two are her first. He has a list of possible readings for both names, but no way of knowing which combination is the correct one.

He assumes she's in the Japanese National Soulmate Registry, an official government resource that anyone with a co.jp email address can add themselves to and access once they turn eighteen, but he's not actually sure about that part. If she's actually from Japan, it's likely, but if she's Japanese-American and her legal name is in kanji, it's possible  _she_  won't be using those resources either.

He knows she hasn't been looking for him, because  _Wells Jaha_  is pretty easy, as names go. He knows that if you google that, you get him.

Sometimes, he thinks he's not her soulmate at all. Sometimes he thinks she must have another name, her own set of neat kanji somewhere on her body, that she found that person and they're happy. Maybe he would just come in and complicate her neat, tidy life.

It's March, three years after he finishes college, when he gets the email from Yamaguchi-sensei. He assumes it's another department email, the kind she sends out every few months, updates on the department, staffing opportunities, alumni programs. The usual thing.

Then he sees the subject line:  _Soulmate?_

It takes him a minute to get the nerve up to actually open it, and his eyes skim over the greeting, the small talk, honing in on the paragraph with the characters he knows so well in it.

The paragraph about his soulmate.

_You might already know this, but I think your soulmate is in the anime my niece was watching today. It’s called “まり子ちゃんフイト！” I don’t know if it has an English translation yet. The voice actress for Nanami is 神沢明花. Reading is Kamizawa Haruka._

He stares at the words for a long time, trying to process them. It shouldn't be a surprise, really; he knows all his friends' soulmates names, and just because the idea of remembering a string of four kanji he can't actually read is still daunting to  _him_ , even after years of studying, it's different for native speakers. The fact that Yamaguchi-sensei can't say his soulmate's name doesn't mean she can't remember it.

Except now she can say it. Now, she knows.

He switches his text input so he can send her a thank-you email in Japanese instead of English, and then he keeps it so he can check Japanese Wikipedia.

He finds the page for the anime immediately, and he scans through the production information he doesn't care about until he reaches the cast of characters. Nanami is second, and by it, highlighted in blue, is the character for "voice" followed by his soulmate's name, highlighted in blue, linking to a whole profile he can (attempt to) read.

It doesn't have to be her, of course. There could be another girl with this name, but he thinks it must be right. It's a name with a number of potential different readings, but he doesn't know how many people there are with this specific arrangement of characters, with this exact  _name_. There could be a Kanzawa Asuka out there who uses the same kanji, but it feels so  _unlikely_. After all this time, he can't have found the wrong one.

She's a year older than he is, started voice acting when she was in college. She's been working steadily since then, doing a handful of shows every year, with  _Mariko-chan Faito!_  as the most recent one, and the only one that's at all familiar to him at first glance.

There's an English wikipedia page for her too, though, so he switches to that one. It's much less detailed, just the basic biographical information he already saw, her date of birth and birthplace, and then the list of credits, much shorter, with more broken links. Apparently a lot of her stuff hasn't made it to the US.  _Mariko vs. Tenth Grade_  is the English name for the show, and it seems to be a pretty typical slice-of-life high-school dramedy. Mariko is a girl who really wants to be the top of her class but can't quite get there, with a group of ragtag friends who are constantly screwing things up for her. Apparently it's decently popular, and he doesn't have any trouble finding it on Crunchyroll.

Hitting the play button, though; that's another thing.

So instead, he texts Clarke:  _I found my soulmate_

She must not be busy, because she calls him immediately, his phone display lighting up with a picture of the two of them from high school.

He used to want it to be her, his soulmate. Sometimes, he still does; it sounds so much simpler.

"Where is she? How did you guys meet?" Clarke demands, before he has a chance to say anything.

"She's, uh--I didn't actually meet her. She's an actress. One of my profs saw her name in this show her niece was watching."

There's a long pause while Clarke digests this. "So your soulmate is a celebrity?"

"I don't know how famous she really is, but she's got a wikipedia page. In Japanese and English. And probably some other languages, I don't remember."

"What's her name?"

"Haruka Kamizawa."

He can hear her typing, and then-- "She's cute."

"You found pictures?"

"I googled her, there are pictures. Have you not googled her?"

"Just Wikipedia. And Crunchyroll."

"Crunchyroll?"

"It's an anime website. She's got a show on there."

"What's it called? I think Monty and Miller watch anime, they might have watched it."

" _Mariko vs. Tenth Grade_. I haven't watched it yet. What do I do? How do you get in touch with a Japanese voice actress?"

"Maybe you can find her agent's information? His soulmate is an anime voice actress," she adds, a little distant, so Wells assumes she's explaining to Bellamy. There's a pause, and then she asks, "Is that a thing?"

"Agents for voice actresses?"

"No, Bellamy wants to know if she does conventions."

He opens up a new tab, types  _haruka kamizawa convention united states_ , and there it is, right at the top:  _Anime Expo | Haruka Kamizawa_.

"She's doing one in LA in July," he says, clicking the link with numb fingers. They have a picture too; she  _is_  cute. "The big one, I think. I’ve heard of it."

"When in July?" Clarke asks.

"First weekend."

"So--four months? Can we still get tickets?"

"We?" he asks, dubious.

"Come on," she says, like this is the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not letting you go find your soulmate at an anime convention  _alone_. It's going to be fun."

He rubs his face, still sees the image of Haruka behind his eyelids. "Yeah. Fun."

*

It's not just Clarke, of course. He didn't really think it would  _just_  be Clarke, because she and Bellamy are a package deal, as they should be, and he doesn't mind that. Bellamy's a good guy, and Wells likes him a lot.

The fact that a bunch of their other friends are tagging along is a bit confusing, but not actually  _that_  surprising. Wells knows all of them, likes them even, and he can't say he's shocked that Monty, Miller, Raven, and Gina want to go to an anime convention.

Okay, Gina's kind of a surprise, but only because he wasn't convinced she cared enough about anime to follow Raven all the way to LA for a convention.

"I'm not invested, but I'm kind of curious," she explains at the airport. Boston's the easiest place for him to fly out of too, so they're all going in a giant posse. It's equal parts cool and kind of terrifying. But that might just be the meeting-his-soulmate thing. "I've never been to an anime convention before. I want to see how dorky it is."

"Very dorky. Speaking of which, where's Jasper?" he asks. "I thought he'd want to come."

"At the beach with his new girlfriend," says Monty. "Growing up means deciding to get laid instead of going to Anime Expo."

"Wells is going to Anime Expo to get laid," Bellamy points out.

"I actually have the smallest chance of getting laid at this thing of any of us," he says. "I don't even know if I'm her soulmate too. Maybe she's never heard of me and I'm going to freak her out."

"That's the spirit," Bellamy says, clapping his shoulder. "The good news is, it's an anime convention, so if nothing else, there's going to be someone there who thinks their soulmate is a body pillow. So you're not going to be the worst one."

"I don't appreciate your unfounded stereotypes about anime fans, dickface," says Miller, mild.

"Sorry, are you denying the existence of body pillows? I've seen pictures. I know those are a thing."

Wells zones out their bickering, letting it wash over him, an oddly comforting kind of white noise. He's had four months to prepare for this, but he still doesn't really feel like he's anywhere close to ready. He's kept up his Japanese studies decently, if not slavishly, since college, has a friend he meets for drinks and casual conversation once a week who nearly came to the convention, but had to cancel at the last minute. He's seen all of Haruka's work now, which feels kind of creepy, but if their roles were reversed, he'd expect her to do the same, honestly. And she's his soulmate, right? She should understand.

He really hopes she understands. He really hopes she's his soulmate.

"You okay?" Clarke asks, sliding in next to him.

He drops his head onto her shoulder. "I don't know what I'm going to say to her."

" _Konnichiwa_ ," she supplies, bright.

"Your accent sucks."

"So you can say it better."

"Do you think I'm her soulmate?"

The pause is long, but it doesn't feel like the bad kind of pause. It's a nice thing about Clarke; she never just says what he wants to hear, but in a nice way. "I hope so. She doesn't have to be, but I don't think it's a bad sign that she never found you. It doesn't have to mean anything. You didn't find her either, remember?"

"I know. I wish I'd just--met her. This feels like some creepy, grand gesture. Like I'm stalking her."

"It's a public appearance. And it's honestly pretty non-invasive, the way you're doing it."

That much is actually true. They came up with a really low-risk plan. She's doing autographs, so he bought a ticket and he's going to give her his name so she can address it to him. If she's his soulmate, he assumes she'll tell him, and if she's not, she'll never think anything of it. There's no awkward confrontation, no creepy  _look at your name on my body_.

It's as safe as he can make it. It's going to be fine.

But it's still kind of the worst. They get to LA just after eight local time, but that’s past eleven for them, and everyone’s worn out by the time they’re managed to get off the plane and find taxis to the hotel. It’s possible no one actually will get laid at Anime Expo, since everyone is sharing rooms to save money, but that kind of helps too. Having Clarke and Bellamy around, chatting about unpacking and plans for the con, helps keep him from getting too far into his own head.

At least he's got the autograph tomorrow. He’s not sure he’d survive waiting until Sunday for some kind of resolution.

“Do you want me to come with you or go with the others?” Bellamy asks over breakfast. “I know you aren’t getting rid of Clarke, but I don’t know how much of an audience you want.”

Clarke kicks him under the table. “I’m being supportive, dick.”

“I think support only counts if it’s wanted.”

“I want it,” Wells says. “But it’s up to you if you want to come or not. I know you and Miller have body pillows to shop for—“

“I figured we’d all go body-pillow shopping together. That’s a group activity." He rubs the back of his neck. "I’ll come with you guys, if you really don’t mind.”

He’s probably worried, which is sweet. Wells isn’t sure he’s ever met anyone who simultaneously cares so much, hides it so badly, and keeps on trying to hide it anyway. Clarke lucked out.

“I don’t mind,” he says. “The more the merrier.”

It’s not actually his first anime convention—the Japanese club in college organized a couple trips to Anime Boston, and he went to Otakon one summer—but he’s still never really figured out how to feel comfortable at these things. He majored in Japanese because he liked it and had taken a lot of classes, and trying to figure out another major felt like a lot of work. He watched anime because it was available and a lot of his classmates liked it, and it’s not like he doesn’t enjoy it. His interest is genuine, but it can’t help feeling a little dishonest and unearned, too. It had never occurred to him to be curious about Japanese language or culture or art, not until Haruka’s name showed up on his arm, and now it feels like he’s trying to butt in on something that doesn’t belong to him.

He likes where his life has ended up, he really does. But Haruka has been doing all this other stuff, finding a career and starting to make a name for herself, and it feels like his entire adulthood has been defined by her name on his ankle.

“Let’s go check out artist’s alley,” Clarke suggests, too bright. “I want to see how the talent is.”

The autograph session runs from two to four, and they go over early to get a good place in line. The show is fairly popular, and Haruka was in an OVA for some video game too, which makes her decently popular, with fans across the gender spectrum. A lot of people want to meet her; it's not just him.

“Breathe,” Bellamy says, and he’s embarrassed to realize he needed the reminder. “At least you’ll find out.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll know.”

She looks how he knew she would, from pictures, but still not exactly how he was expecting. Her hair is shorter, pulled away from her face with a bright barrette, and she’s wearing glasses, which she wasn’t in any of the images he saw.

He’s maybe fifteenth in line; he’s not even that far from her.

“Oh fuck,” he says, and Clarke pats him on the back.

“Don't worry. Everyone gets nervous around celebrities.”

Haruka is taking the time to chat a little with everyone, which means that even if his name means nothing to her, he’ll have to talk to her, and that takes up most of his brain. He has to come up with something to  _say_  to her.

_Do you know of anyone else who uses the same kanji for their name that you do_  seems awkward at best.

“Keep breathing,” Bellamy tells him, when his hands shake as he takes the post-it note to write his name on. “You don’t want to spell it wrong and she doesn’t recognize it.”

“ _Oh, Wells Jaba? Wow, so close_ ,” Clarke teases, and smiling evens out his heart rate.

“Wouldn’t want that.”

“Next,” says her handler, and he gives her the print he wants signed with the post-it note attached. She reviews it, nods, and passes it along once Haruka is finished with her current fan.

And then there he is, standing in front of his soulmate as she reads his name.

“Oh,” she says, a soft breath, and he nearly staggers with the relief of it.

“Hi.”

There’s a second, and he can see her collecting herself before she looks up at him.

He looks good, he thinks. He put on a button down and nice jeans, respectable without standing out too much from the more casual crowd, and he showered and shaved and is putting the best foot forward he can.

"Wells Jaha," she says, slow, as if she's sounding it out, but not for the first time. As if maybe she's not sure she's been pronouncing it correctly.

"Kanizawa Haruka," he says, putting the last name first, like it's written on him. "Or--" He leans down, drawing the first character of her name with his finger on the table, making her laugh. It's a bright, pretty sound, and it doesn't feel like he's fucking this up yet.

"You must have been so surprised."

"You weren't?"

"I was, but not the same way, I don't think. We take English in school, I could read it. But I didn't know what it meant, where you were from or--" She bites her lip, looks at the line stretching out behind him. "I'm sorry, I can't really--"

"No, of course not. I know you're busy. I just thought I should--"

"Yes," she says, instantly. "I'm glad you did." She turns her attention back to the print, writes  _Wells Jaha_ , draws a heart, and signs her name, those four beloved characters, quick and fluid, even more familiar to her than they are to him.

Then she flips it over and writes her phone number on the back.

"I'll be done at four," she says. "With everything I have to do for today."

"Okay," he says. "I'll, uh--I'll text you."

He finds he's shaking as Clarke and Bellamy guide him away from her, all the adrenaline leaving his body in a rush, all his thoughts scattering.

"Holy shit," he finally manages, and Clarke laughs.

"You found her, Wells."

"I'm going to have to tell my blog."

"Yeah, that's the priority here," Bellamy says. "You feel okay? Do you need anything? You should drink some water."

In the moment, it's absolutely the funniest thing he has ever heard in his life, and he collapses onto Bellamy's shoulder, laughing.

"Definitely water," he says. "Maybe you need to sit down."

"Probably," he admits, and they get him pulled off to the side of the hallway on a clear spot of ground. Bellamy pulls a bottle of water out of his bag and pushes it into his hands, and he takes a grateful gulp.

"Did you get her  _number_?" someone demands, and when he looks up, he sees some guy in a Totoro t-shirt glaring at him.

"Yeah," he says, still dazed.

" _How_?"

He takes another drink and then returns the bottle to Bellamy, smoothing the print in his lap. The side with the number is facing down, which is probably good, because he doesn't trust some random stranger not to memorize it and use it for nefarious purposes. And he gets to see his new favorite text, in sparkling silver print:  _Wells Jaha ♥ 神沢明花_.

"I don't know," he says, offering the guy a smile. "Guess it was just meant to be."


	2. Monty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fill for [astairelover](http://astairelover.tumblr.com)!

"So," says Nate on Friday morning, "I was thinking maybe we could skip the con today."

"Are you guys going to have sex all day while we're at the con?" Raven asks, frowning. "Because, come on, that's a huge waste of money. You could have just stayed home and had sex."

"Hotel sex is different from home sex," says Gina.

Monty's feeling confused too, but not really about the relative merits of where to have sex. Nate's not really paying attention to the conversation, watching Monty with interest, like this answer is a big deal, and that’s disconcerting.

"Yeah, I'm going to say it depends on the alternate plan,” he says. “Sex isn’t a big draw for me. What did you want to do? We came for the anime convention."

"They opened up the Star Wars exhibit at Disneyland."

"I guess as long as you're still being a giant dork, it's okay," says Raven, and Nate flips her off before turning his attention back to Monty.

"There's tons to do there, and I've never done any of the Disney shit, it might be fun. I figure it'll be a little less crowded today than it would be on the weekend."

It is a little bit surprising, less that Nate wants to go and more that this is the first Monty is hearing about it. They've been planning this trip for a while, and suddenly, out of nowhere, they're going to Disneyland?

Something is definitely up.

"I guess we don't have much special going on at the con today," he says, with a shrug of one shoulder. If Nate's got a plan, there's no way he's going to ruin it. "I've never been to Disneyland either. I wouldn't mind checking it out."

"I can't believe you guys are going to miss Wells' soulmate's panel."

"I don't think she cares," Nate shoots back. They haven't actually met her yet, although she and Wells got dinner last night, and by all accounts it's going well. He's walking around in a perpetual state of looking like he got punched in the face, which seems about right. Haruka Kamizawa isn't exactly a household name, even for anime fans, but it's closer than anyone else Monty knows has come to having a celebrity for a soulmate. Add in the language barrier and the complications of living in two different countries and it must be a whole lot to deal with.

He still doesn't know how they're going to sort that out, but he assumes they'll figure it out.

"Yeah, I think she'll live," he agrees. "I want to pretend to fly the Millennium Falcon."

"Legit," says Raven. "Send pictures."

Nate rolls his eyes, but he's smiling a little. "Yeah, don't worry. We'll make sure to document it."

*

**Me** : Not to jinx anything  
But I think Nate might be proposing

**Jasper** : At an anime convention??  
Bold move

**Me** : No, we're going to Disneyland  
He made it sound like a whim but he clearly planned it  
He did all this research  
Should I ask him if he's proposing or pretend like I don't know?

**Jasper** : You still don't know  
I mean he might be  
That's definitely a potential proposal situation  
But you're not sure

**Me** : No

**Jasper** : Here's my take  
If you're going to be really disappointed if he doesn't do it, ask if he's going to  
If you're cool either way, don't

**Me** : Huh  
You think?

**Jasper** : If he's doing it, he wants it to be a surprise  
He put some work into it  
So if you can act like you didn't figure it out, I feel like you should  
But if you're wrong and you're going to be really upset about it  
Maybe check before you get your hopes up too high

**Me** : This is coming from someone who has done a lot of big romantic gestures, huh

**Jasper** : Some of us have to work for our relationships  
Come to think of it, if you're going to say no, you should also tell him  
But I assume you're saying yes

**Me** : Yeah  
If he asks, I'll say yes  
And if he doesn't, maybe I'll ask him soon  
Apparently I want to get married?  
So that's cool to know

**Jasper** : Awesome  
Congrats  
I hope he proposes at Disneyland, that would be pretty slick  
Have fun

**Me** : You too  
How's the beach?

**Jasper** : Pretty good  
I think I'm getting along pretty well with the family  
Her dad and I stayed up late last night drinking while he told me about serving in the army  
I think that's good?

**Me** : Did he tell you about the people he killed  
Was it an implicit threat

**Jasper** : No it was more like  
"I was a dumbass kid over my head, but now I have brothers for life"  
Etc   
He might have been trying to get me to enlist but like in a good way

**Me** : Nice  
Okay, Nate's out of the shower  
I think we're taking off  
Have a good day at the beach

**Jasper** : Let me know if you get engaged  
Send Disney pix either way

**Me** : [thumbs up]

*

It's honestly kind of weird, how invested Monty finds himself in the marriage thing.

He thinks about it as Nate drives their Zipcar over to Anaheim, distracted as he tries to figure out how, exactly, he's feeling about it.

It's not going to break his heart, if Nate doesn't propose today, that's for sure. If this really was a whim and not part of a calculated romantic gesture, that's not a big deal. He's not attached to getting engaged  _today_ , or to having any kind of big to-do about it.

But he'd like to get engaged, and he'd like to get married, and if this isn't Nate proposing, then he wants to have a conversation about it and figure out if Nate's interested in that too.

Which is a pretty cool revelation.

"So, do you have a plan?" he asks Nate, once he's sorted that out. It's only a little bit to fuck with him, if he is going to propose.

Nate startles. "What?"

"I assume you did some kind of research. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?"

"Oh, yeah, I did do research. There's a lot to do just wandering around in the Star Wars area, but--" He pauses. "I should just give up pretending I didn't plan this, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Okay, I got us fast passes for the all rides I could, so that should be good."

"What were you going to do if I didn't want to go?"

"Take Bellamy," he says, and Monty snorts. "I would have tried to talk you into it. But I thought you'd probably like it."

"Next time, you can just tell me it's a surprise and bring me to a mysterious location in an unmarked car. I trust you, I'll just go with you on this stuff."

"Okay, well--surprise. I thought we should take a Disney vacation while we were here. Not that I don't like anime, but it wasn't like there was anything we were super into going on here."

"Which is kind of hilarious, if you think about it." Nate cocks his head, and Monty clarifies, "We're more invested in anime than pretty much anyone else here? Raven only likes mecha, Gina only likes Raven, Bellamy and Clarke have no clue what’s happening, and Wells is here for his soulmate. But somehow we're the ones skipping out on the convention to go to Disneyland."

"I bet Bellamy and Clarke are bored by tomorrow. They’ll probably go into town to stalk celebrities or something."

"Yeah, that sounds like them. Maybe they can go to Disneyland too."

"The Harry Potter thing at Universal."

"They've got options, yeah." He smiles down at his hands; if Nate wants to propose, that's cool, but--maybe this is just a surprise. Maybe he just wanted to do something nice for Monty. That's not nothing. "Thanks for doing this," he says. "Setting all this up. It's cool."

"No problem. Thought it would be fun."

Monty settles a little more comfortably into the seat. "Yeah. Can't wait."

*

If they had actually been planning a visit to Disneyland, specifically, they probably could have done better with it. The first weekend in July--even if Friday isn't technically part of the weekend yet--is a busy time, and while the park is large, everything still feels crowded and rushed and overstuffed.

But maybe that's part of the experience too. It wouldn't be the same, going to a deserted amusement park. It might be better, of course, but it wouldn't be what Disneyland is all about.

So they just lean into it. They're tourists; they might as well own it. They get pictures taken with whichever costumed characters take their fancy. They try on novelty sunglasses and hold up t-shirts they won't buy and are, not to brag, kind of stupidly adorable. He would totally watch this montage in a movie.

"This is actually pretty cool," Nate admits, over lunch.

Monty has to smile. "Wait, were you expecting it to suck?"

"No, I wasn't expecting it to suck. But I didn't know if we were actually going to like it, or if it would end up kind of--hokey, I guess? I wasn't sure how much appeal there is for adults."

Monty nudges his foot. "We're not adults, we're young at heart. Also, we're not even  _thirty_ , let's not get carried away here. You're not Bellamy."

"You know what I mean."

"I know, yeah. I never did this as a kid so I always kind of wondered if, like--it would be fun for me if I did."

"Without the nostalgia."

"Exactly." He grins. "Then again, we're in the Star Wars park, so maybe nostalgia's still a thing. This is definitely some childhood dreams coming true."

"Yeah? Good. I was hoping--" He clears his throat, looks down. "I was hoping you'd like it. I feel like we haven't really gotten to do anything fun in a while. Nothing that's a big deal."

It hadn't been bothering Monty, but in a way, he supposes it's true. Their recent trips have either been for business or holidays, which never feel as much like a vacation as spontaneous time off does.

"I don't need a lot that's a big deal," he says. "Board game nights and laidback weekends work for me."

"Yeah, but--I saw the chance to do something romantic and I took it."

"You did a great job."

He ducks his head on a smile. "Cool. Glad I did it right."

Somehow, he's sure. "You aren't going to propose, right?"

All the happiness just drains from his face, and he looks like he might be sick. "Oh, shit, no, I--what?"

"I'm not upset," he says quickly. "I just thought this might be the first step in a grand romantic gesture. But if this is the whole gesture, that's great. This is awesome."

"That would have been a really good idea, though," Nate muses. "Proposing at the Millennium Falcon? That would have been awesome."

"It's not actually too late," Monty points out. "We're still here. Not that--we don't have to. But I want to get engaged, and if we do it here, a bunch of people will take pictures and we might get on a website or something."

"I don't have a ring."

"I bet we could find a cheap one."

"Cheap?" Nate asks. "At Disneyland?"

"Not  _cheap_ , but, you know. Something symbolic. Plastic, maybe."

"Disney princess ring?"

"Works for me."

That eats up a lot of their afternoon, trying to find something they can use to make it clear that a proposal is happening without necessarily breaking the bank, and Monty finally just says, "They have to have Star Wars rings, right?"

Of course, they do, and they both pick one out, and Monty honestly cannot think of a single reason for them to ever get different engagement rings. The whole jewelry thing is a scam; this is all he needs.

"Who's proposing?" he asks. "Me or you?"

"Huh," says Nate. "I was thinking me, but if you want to, you can. It was your idea, we should do it however you want."

"It feels weird to tell you to propose to me."

"I want to propose to you. I'm just annoyed I didn't think of it myself."

He laughs, bumps his shoulder against Nate's. "Team effort."

"Team effort. I just don't think about marriage much. Not, like--I want to. But you're my soulmate and we already live together, it never felt that pressing. I've already got everything I want."

"That's really good, you should put that into your proposal speech.”

He snorts. "I think I can figure something out."

Monty's expecting it to be in the cockpit, but in terms of drama, he has to admit there's something to be said for the spot Nate picks, right outside the Falcon, with the ship in the backdrop. And he manages to make it a surprise, too, taking Monty's hand and saying, "Hey, hold on a sec." Even knowing the proposal is coming, Monty doesn't actually realize this is  _it_ , just assumes Nate has another question until he's getting down on one knee.

“Oh shit,” he says, and Nate smirks, just for a second, before he clears his throat and gets down to business.

"This is what I used to dream about, when I was a kid," he says, looking up at Monty, all earnest adoration. "This exact moment. In some--dorky place, with this boy who loves me, and cares about this stuff I care about. This is exactly what I thought I'd never get, Monty. I thought I'd never be the right fit for anyone, even you. I still can't believe how happy I am. So I'm asking you here, in front of the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs--will you marry me?"

He lets out a deeply embarrassing, kind of choked laugh/sob, putting his hands over his mouth. Someone is definitely taking pictures, even though they didn't ask for them. They're a spectacle.

"Yeah," he says. "Obviously, yes, yes."

It's kind of a blur after that. Nate puts the ring on him, and they kiss, and they get a bunch of pictures on their phone, and some kind strangers send them the shots they got of the proposal, and just as suddenly it's over, the world moving on around them, leaving Monty feeling small and overwhelmed.

"I thought you were doing it in the cockpit."

"I didn't want to hear what jokes our friends would have made about that," he says, and Monty laughs again. He's still crying a little too, but it's cool. He got engaged; he's allowed. "Sorry, was that okay?"

He throws his arms around Nate, kisses him once and then just burrows in, close. "It was perfect, yeah. Best surprise ever."

Nate kisses his hair. "Cool. That's what I was going for."

*

**Me** : [image]  
I had to tell him to ask   
But he thought it was a good idea

**Jasper** : Whatever works, man  
Congrats  
Dibs on maid of honor  
I'm not letting Clarke snipe that

**Me** :Obviously  
It's all you  
It’s going to be great


	3. Bellamy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fill for [clarkess-griffin](http://clarkess-griffin.tumblr.com)!

Clarke brings it up in a roundabout way. "You named Octavia, right?"

He frowns. "Yeah, why?"

"Did you do it on purpose? Like--Octavia. It's a really distinctive name. Were you thinking about how it would be easy for her soulmate to find her?"

"Fuck, no," he says, rolling his eyes. "Come on, I was a kid. I just thought it sounded cool and I liked Roman shit. Why?"

"I've been thinking about baby names," she says, and he freezes.

For about five seconds, she lets him sweat it out, and then she adds, "I'm not pregnant."

All the breath leaves him at once. "Jesus, you scared the shit out of me."

"Would that be bad?" she asks, curious.

"Not bad, just--completely fucking unexpected. The implant is really effective birth control."

"Yeah. And I've been thinking it's maybe time to get rid of it."

He puts his book aside, sliding across the couch so he's next to her, and she snuggles into him. "Okay, that's--something. Any particular reason?"

As he knew she would, she takes the question at face value, without getting defensive. “Nothing big. I just feel like we could. Financially. And I want to someday. I think I’m ready. If you’re not, it’s cool. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Huh.”

Bellamy’s always wanted children, at least in the abstract. He thought he’d be a father someday, and he’d like to be. But he didn’t have a specific time frame in mind. He hadn’t been thinking about when it would happen.

“Just something to think about,” she says. “No rush.”

“No rush,” he agrees.

*

“I think the kids should take your last name,” he tells her, a week later.

She doesn’t miss a beat. “Yeah?”

“It’s less common than mine.”

“Is it? I’m not actually sure.”

Bellamy’s always felt his first name is the weird part, and Blake is completely ordinary, but it’s not like he ever checked.

Clarke, being Clarke, is already googling it. “Yeah, no, Blake is less common than Griffin as a last name, at least in the US.”

“Really?”

“According to this random website, anyway. I bet Bellamy is less common than Clarke, though. So it evens out.” She worries her lip. “Do you think it’s good? To be easy to find?”

He thinks it over. “I think what we had was good. When you said your name was Clarke, I was pretty sure.”

“Which has nothing to do with my last name.”

“No, I don’t think last names are a huge deal. I just wanted a cute way to tell you to lose the implant.”

She pecks him on the mouth. “Mission accomplished. It might still take a while.”

“Yeah. So we should get trying.”

She smiles. “I’ll set up the appointment. You know,” she adds, thoughtful, “there can’t be a lot of Griffin-Blakes.”

He smiles. “You’re right, that could work.”

*

Trying to have a kid is kind of a mind-fuck, as it turns out, mostly because it changes the stakes on something he likes and thinks he’s good at, but he has no control over the new stakes. They can track Clarke’s cycle and try to have sex at the most biologically favorable times, but there’s not really much he can do to be better at impregnating her, and they’re not even trying that hard to optimize their chances. But he still feels kind of like he’s failing, every time she gets her period, even though it’s not a big deal. They’re not in a rush.

Mostly, it’s slightly irritating. Bellamy's always been kind of an overachiever, and he simultaneously wants to be the best at getting his wife pregnant while also not really caring at all if or when he manages it.

Which makes Anime Expo a pretty great distraction, all things considered. Traveling is admittedly stressful, but they have Wells to fret over, and bookings to manage, and all sorts of things to do, enough to actually distract them from pregnancy for a while.

Which is why, on Saturday morning, at the fucking con, Clarke actually has to ask, "When did I last have my period?"

Bellamy freezes. Wells is grabbing breakfast with Haruka, so it's just the two of them in their room, with no awkward explanations to give.

"Shit. I don't remember. Did you check your app?"

She shakes her head. "Honestly, I was so busy getting ready to leave work I didn't even think about it."

"Yeah, me too. You can just look," he points out, gentle. "It's not going to help not knowing."

She sighs. "I know. Now I'm just second-guessing, like--it really wasn't  _that_  long, right? I had my period at some point."

"At some point." He kisses the top of her head. "Check your app, Clarke."

She closes her eyes and exhales, finding her phone and pulling up her period tracker. It's not a big deal, he tells himself, as he settles in behind her, propping his head on her shoulder to watch. Either way, they're--

"I'm like two weeks late, wow."

He laughs softly, face against the back of her neck. "Fuck, I can't believe it took us that long to check."

"We've been distracted."

"So, uh--what now?"

"I guess I try to find a pregnancy test. There has to be a CVS or something around, right?" She turns herself around so she can curl into him, and he tugs her close. "There's no way, right?"

"It's definitely possible. I'm not saying it happened, but I don't think it's impossible. We have been having a lot of sex."

She laughs. "Not, like, an abnormal amount."

"No, but enough to potentially get you pregnant."

"Yeah." She lets out a long breath, squeezes him one more time before she stands. "Okay, so--let's go to CVS."

Getting the test isn't hard, and they even make themselves grab breakfast while they're out, even though they're both anxious to just get back to the room and get it over with. That's not an excuse to skip meals. Especially not if she really is pregnant.

"I guess I'd have to cut down on caffeine," says Clarke, apparently thinking along the same lines as she looks down at her muffin. "If I'm--"

"Yeah, I've heard. It's not a big deal if you're not," he adds, and her mouth twitches.

"Like you're not invested."

"Of course I'm invested," he says. "I want you to be. But--you're twenty-five," he teases, gentle. "It's not like we're in some big fucking rush here."

"I know. Just--once we start, I want it to  _work_."

"Overachiever."

"Shut up."

He reaches over to squeeze her hand. "I want it to work too, but--if it doesn't, we just have to have more sex."

As he hoped, that makes her laugh. "Yeah, when you put it like that."

*

Of course, Wells is in the room when they get back. Which isn't a huge surprise, it's his room too, but Bellamy can see the tension racing up Clarke's back when he smiles at them.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," says Bellamy. "Where's Haruka?"

"Being a guest at a con. I'm going to meet up with her when she's done with her autograph session."

His smile is still this kind of unsteady, disbelieving thing, which makes it easy. Bellamy sits down next to him on the bed, giving Clarke the chance to duck into the bathroom. "How's that going?" he asks. "Still good?"

"Surreal, but good, yeah. I still don't know--" He shakes his head. "It doesn't feel like we have much of a future right now, I guess. She's going to go back to Japan, and I'm--"

"Already thinking about moving?" he teases.

"I thought about it after college," he admits, with a sigh. "Doing JET or something. It seemed like a better way to try to find her than staying here."

"So why didn't you?"

"It felt so--pathetic. Uprooting my whole life just to look for her. It doesn't feel much better doing it now that I've met her. Not--"

"You want to, but you feel like you shouldn't," Bellamy supplies. It's not exactly uncommon; everyone struggles with the same feeling, the simultaneous urge to be all-in all on their soulmate at once and to show some restraint, to think clearly.

"Yeah."

"So don't do it yet. Come on," he says, nudging his shoulder against Wells'. "You don't have to do everything today. You can still talk to her after the con. Look for a job if you want, see if she's interested in relocating--you guys are soulmates, remember? You don't have to be in a hurry."

"You're one to talk," Wells teases. "Married as soon as Clarke got out of college."

"Yeah, I had to lock that down."

As if the conversation summoned her, the bathroom door opens and Clarke comes out, looking pale. Bellamy's on his feet in seconds, crossing the room to her, not caring about Wells' confusion.

"Hey," he says, "what--"

"I'm not saying we're having a baby, but right now two out of two pregnancy tests agree that it’s happening."

He laughs, swings her around, kisses her long and deep before he remembers that Wells is there.

"I can leave," he offers, with a smile, and Clarke disentangles herself from Bellamy's long enough to hug him too.

"Sorry, I would have waited until you were gone, but--"

"I'm glad you didn't. Congratulations, I didn't even know you guys were trying."

"It still might be--it's early. It might not really--"

"I know. Still, though. Congratulations."

"Thanks. We weren't trying to steal your thunder, you're still the big news this weekend," Clarke teases.

"I don't mind sharing," he says. "There's more than enough good news to go around. Want to go try to find Miller a body pillow before Haruka finishes up?"

"Definitely."

They're leaving tomorrow afternoon to avoid taking too much more time off work, so this is their last full day in California. They spend it wandering around the con, stopping by panels for shows they've never heard of, buying merch they don't need.

His hand keeps straying to Clarke's back, keeping her close, not sure how to stop touching her, not when everything suddenly feels so huge.

"Do you want to tell everyone?" he asks, once Wells has gone off to find Haruka and they’re alone again. "Or wait until--"

"I think I want to tell them. If the tests were wrong, or something happens to the baby--I want to be able to talk to them about it. I think."

He smiles. "You think?"

"I reserve the right to regret it."

"Yeah, that checks out."

"Do you want to tell them?"

He thinks it over. "Yeah, I think so. Like you said, we might regret it, but I think I'd want them to know. We can tell them at dinner?" he offers. "Honestly, I think Wells and Haruka might appreciate it. Take some of the spotlight off them."

Clarke smiles. "Yeah, that would probably be good."

It's not a baseless concern; Wells mentioned Haruka was a little nervous about joining them all for dinner, and Bellamy can't say he blames her. Her English is good, but not perfect, and following several conversations in a large group will probably be difficult. Plus, Wells is the person she knows best, and even he's a very new acquaintance. Spending time with seven virtual strangers isn't necessarily his idea of a good time even without a language barrier.

But they're Wells' friends, and it's her last night with him, so she's giving it a try.

Bellamy chats with her about her family, manages to get in a decent conversation about their respective younger siblings, and she and Wells teach him some about Japanese language and writing, which is interesting, if completely new.

Clarke catches his eye across the table as the main courses come in, tilts her head. He shrugs one shoulder, and she nods, clears her throat.

"While everyone's here, Bellamy and I have an announcement."

"We do too," says Miller, to his surprise. "Want to rock-paper-scissors for who goes first?"

"Definitely not, I'm pregnant," she says, and Miller snorts.

"Fine, you can go. Congrats," he adds, with a smile, and Clarke smiles back.

"How far along?" Raven asks.

"Just a few weeks. I'm setting up a doctor's appointment as soon as I get back, so this is--"

"Good news," Gina supplies.

"Awesome news," Bellamy says. "What's yours, Miller?"

Monty holds up his hand with a grin. "Getting married. Date to be determined."

"Did you get engaged at Disneyland?" Raven asks.

"The most romantic place on Earth," Monty says, somber.

"Where did he do it?" Bellamy asks, grinning and kicking Miller's foot under the table. "Sleeping Beauty's Castle?"

"Dude, come on. Millennium Falcon. We have about ten billion pictures."

He holds his hand out. "Come on, dude, don't hold out on us."

They pass the phone around so everyone can see the picture, and toast with water since Clarke isn't drinking, and then order dessert, given they have what feels like a thousand things to celebrate.

"Feel kind of bad for you guys, though," he tells Raven and Gina, grinning. "Everyone else has big news, and you two--"

"Are in a happy, healthy relationship and love each other?" Raven supplies. "We're set on good news, trust me."

"We'll get married sooner or later. Once Miller and Monty are done," Gina adds, inclining her head to them. "We're up next. We can just be happy for you guys until then."

"Generous," he teases.

"We're givers." Raven looks around the table, nods. “Okay so I know this is our first one of these and I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but--best Anime Expo ever, right?"

Haruka laughs and raises her glass. "My best, definitely."

Bellamy clinks his own glass against it. "Yeah, no contest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done! I'm going to play Stardew Valley until it stops feeling like my brain is leaking out my ears. Happy New Year!


End file.
